Tuesday, July 29, 2008

When fishing from shore, I prefer to use a closed face reel. I have about 20 of the Zebco 808s that I wouldn't trade for anything. Recently at a yard sale I had stopped by had a lot of old fishing gear for sale. A lot of 202s, and some old poles. I would never buy an old used pole, but I saw a newer Penn spincast reel that caught my attention. I got it home and pulled it apart to clean it up some . I put some 30lbs test on it, and attached it on a spare med/heavy rod I had. This morning, we decided to go after some croakers and spot off the pier. The spincast was not my first choice of setups, but after I had 4 lines out, I decided to give it a cast. I attached a Carolina rig, and a 4oz weight, and put on some bloodworm's. My first few casts were not my finest, and I had a hard time positioning where I wanted the bait. After about 5 attempts, I had the hand of it, and got it close enough to where I wanted the bait. The moment of truth for me was when I unexpectedly hooked a catfish. He landed himself, swallowing the hook, and yanked the drag letting me know he was on. I initially snatched the rod, and all it would do was bend. I thought I had a late rockfish, or maybe a skate because I did not expect a catfish in the shallow water where, I had the bait The drag feature worked great, and allowed me to play the fish until it tired out. When I got it to the pier, I saw I had about a 14lbs cat. Nowhere near the record of 68 lbs in my area, but still a lot of fun. I continued using the Penn setup the rest of the morning, and took one of my 808s out of rotation. I am planning a trip to Gander Mountain this weekend, so I think I will give the spincast reels a closer look.